A comparison of two methods of teaching clinical competence

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study is to compare facilitator-assisted teaching with peer-assisted teaching methods in achieving clinically competent student nurses. Background: In the changing health care system nurse educators are faced with establishing teaching methods valuable to large numbers of student nurses learning in the clinical setting. Clinical nursing skills have traditionally been taught by a trained nursing facilitator. Clinical teaching known for this study as the facilitator-assisted teaching method is when the facilitator demonstrates the procedure to be learnt and students imitate the facilitator. An alternative method is that of peer-assisted teaching. In South Africa, the utilization of peer-assisted teaching in clinical skills is not well documented. Peer-assisted teaching involves one or more students teaching other students in a particular subject area. The researcher compared facilitator-assisted teaching method with peer-assisted teaching in order to establish which of these teaching methods would improve student nurses’ clinical competencies. Methods and setting: A quantitative, concurrent, quasi-experimental, crossover design was utilized in this study. The crossover design was used so that each of the student groups had the experience of each type of teaching method. The population (N = 92) consisted of a group of first-year bridging student nurses studying at a large private nursing college. The respondents were randomly selected and divided equally into two groups. The data collection comprised of two phases. Data collected in phase one were analysed using descriptive, inferential and comparative strategies. In phase two the data from the semistructured questions were analysed using content analysis. The data was read and analysed highlighting words to capture key concepts and from these concepts codes emerged. These codes were then placed into categories. Conclusions: When measured, the respondents’ clinical competency results did not show significant differences using either method after having been exposed to both teaching methods. The respondents’ teaching preferences showed that a significant number of respondents preferred facilitator-assisted teaching method